Mons, Jean-Baptiste van (1765-1842)

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Source: BOUGARD, Michel,Jean-Baptiste Van Mons, een boegbeeld van de scheikunde, in: R. Halleux, e.a. (red) Geschiedenis van de wetenschappen in België, 1815-2000, vol.1, Brussel, Dexia/La Renaissance du Livre, 2001, 146.

Pharmacist, physician, chemist, physicist and horticulturalist. Born on 10 November 1765 in Brussels and died on 6 September 1842 in Leuven.

Biography

Van Mons spend his childhood in Brussels where his father, Fernand Philippe Van Mons (1719-1794), worked as receptionist at the old beguinage. The young Van Mons went to school at the college of Turnhout[1] and after that served as an apprentice in an apothecary in Brussels. On 3 September 1787 he passed the trials to become a pharmacist with distinction.[2] It seems that shortly thereafter Van Mons took over the pharmacy of a certain Van de Sande in the centre of Brussels (1789). Other biographers report that he established his own pharmacy.[3] Van Mons showed great interest in developments in the chemical discipline during this period. He was one of the first to spread the antiphlogiston ideas of Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743-1794) in the Netherlands. In 1785, Van Mons published about his personal experiments, which supported Lavoisier's theories. Meanwhile, he learned German, English, Italian and Swedish on his own in addition to French and Dutch.[4]

As a young man, Van Mons lived in turbulent times. During the Brabant Revolution, Van Mons, a vonckist, was a member of the secret revolutionary society Pro Patria.[5] His nickname was "Annibal de Cartache". On 5 August 1790, he was arrested in his pharmacy and imprisoned at the Halle Gate for three months on charges of high treason or lèse-majesté against Emperor Joseph II.[6] However, the revolt against Austrian rule failed shortly afterwards. More inclined towards clemency, Emperor Leopold II, Joseph II's successor, granted Van Mons amnesty because of lack of evidence. Two years later, following the Battle of Jemappes, the French invaded the Austrian Netherlands. Under the French revolutionary government, a People's Council was elected in Brussels; Van Mons, who had distinguished himself by his progressive views, was elected as a member of parliament. After a brief restoration of Austrian power, the Battle of Fleurus in 1794 sealed its definitive defeat. Van Mons immediately came into contact with the victorious French and had the opportunity to study a technical "gadget" developed by French army engineers: a balloon used to observe enemy positions. Van Mons also made the acquaintance of Claude Roberjot (1752-1799), a member of parliament in the Netherlands, with whom he later kept in touch.[7] Via Roberjot, Van Mons met other French scientists, and in this way introduced himself to Parisian academic circles. In 1796, a personal letter from Étienne de Lacepède (1756-1825) announced his admission to the Institut de France as an associate member; in 1796, he was chosen as a member of the editorial board of Lavoisier's "Annales de Chimie".

In turn, Roberjot asked Van Mons to provide him with a report on the resources and riches of the new French territory. He also asked the pharmacist to draw up a list of scientists from the Southern Netherlands and Brussels with a good reputation in the research community. The French regime needed new teachers, as it had abolished the existing institutions in favour of a new education system consisting of central schools. On 11 April 1797, Van Mons himself was appointed professor of physics and chemistry at the École Centrale du département de la Dyle in Brussels. In the meantime, he continued his medical studies, which he had begun earlier. On 15 December 1800, after writing a dissertation on contagious diseases, he was awarded a doctorate in medicine by the University of Helmstadt.

In 1805, together with Jean-Baptiste Terrade (1770-1820) and his brother-in-law François-Antoine Curtet (1763-1830), he founded a school to train medical officers. The ambition of its founders was to reorganise teaching more strictly, and to set the conditions for training and appointing future doctors; this was intended to restore order to the practice of medicine by removing those who were not qualified. The school opened its doors on 14 February. Van Mons taught physiology, pharmacology and pharmacy. On 19 August of the same year, the establishment was replaced by the École départementale de médecine, de chirurgie et d'accouchements pour l'instruction des officiers de santé et des sages-femmes, and Van Mons resigned his post.[8] In the years that followed, he devoted himself entirely to his studies, abandoning his pharmacy. On 31 August 1808, he defended his thesis before the Paris School of Medicine: Dissertation sur l’origine et la distribution uniforme de la chaleur animale.

When the State University of Leuven was founded in 1817, the Dutch government appointed him professor at the new Faculty of Science. He held the chair of chemistry, medicine and agronomy. Van Mons was one of the few professors at the faculty to be from the Netherlands. The Dutch authorities were having great difficulty finding suitable candidates for all the posts to be filled in their own regions. So they recruited specialists from abroad. His students included Jean-Servais Stas (1813-1891), Laurent Guillaume De Koninck (1809-1887) and Pierre-Joseph Hensmans (1802-1862). In 1835, when the State University was abolished, Van Mons was appointed to the University of Ghent. However, he refused to move and was granted emeritus status; he was replaced by his former assistant, Pierre-Joseph Hensmans.

In addition to studying medicine and chemistry, Van Mons was also very interested in horticulture. At the age of 22, he laid the foundations of a theory on the variability of species. In 1785, he built an experimental nursery in Brussels (known as the Fidélité nursery). Van Mons became a renowned horticulturist, renowned in particular for his pear varieties. He produced some 500 new varieties of pear, including the ever-popular Beurré or Doyenne de Mérode, named after the Prince of Mérode of Westerloo. The sumptuous blue grape "Frankenthaler De Coster", the oldest grape variety still grown in Belgium, was also created by Van Mons. In 1819, Van Mons was forced to move to Leuven to take up his new post, taking as many varieties of tree as he could from his 300-hectare nursery. This second nursery was destroyed in 1831 by the French army. Three years later, Van Mons had to move his nursery again. On his death, a Van Mons Society was set up to preserve the collections of fruit trees created by Van Mons and his successor Alexandre Bivort (1809-1872), but it ceased to exist after 1869.

Van Mons became a member of the academy on 3 July 1816, when the Académie royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres was re-established. Van Mons was appointed a foreign associate member of the Académie de Paris in 1814.[9] He was a member of several other learned societies: the Bataafsch Genootschap der Proefondervindelijke Wijsbegeerte te Rotterdam, the Accademia Imperiale di Scienze, Letteratura e Belle Arti in Turin, the Conseil des mines et des arts et manufactures in Paris, and the medical societies of Lyon, Bordeaux, Carpentras and Antwerp. He was awarded the Order of Leopold in 1836.

In 1789, the Société de physique expérimentale de Bruxelles appointed him as perpetual secretary. At the same time, he became a member of the Natuur- en Letterkundig Genootschap in Alkmaar. In 1795, he helped found the Société de médecine, chirurgie et pharmacie in Brussels under the motto "Aegrotantibus" and became its secretary. This society did not survive long and was replaced on 3 July 1804 by the Société de médecine de Bruxelles. Van Mons was less involved in this association than in its predecessor.[10]

Van Mons is buried at the cemetary of Sint-Jans Molenbeek. In 1893 the government commissioned a bust in his likeness.[11]


Work

Van Mons was a versatile scientist, a pioneer in various fields such as chemistry, physics, meteorology and pomology. From an early age, he showed an interest in chemistry and came into contact with Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743-1794), whose innovative ideas he spread. In 1792, he published a number of personal experiments in support of Lavoisier's theories in the Annales de chimie. Two years later, he published an edition of Philosophie chimique ou vérité fondamentale de la chimie moderne by Antoine François Fourcroy (1755-1809), with additional notes and observations on the role of water and light in the production and decolourisation of plant pigments. On 16 January 1797, in a letter from Fourcroy, Van Mons was invited to join the editorial board of the Annales de chimie et de physique. On 30 April 1797, he became the correspondent of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) for the publication of his works in Paris.

Title page of Arbres Fruitiers

Electricity was another of Van Mons's great passions. He defended Franklin's hypothesis on the existence of a single electric fluid, and communicated on this subject with Luigi Valentino Brugnatelli. In 1793-1794, he brought together all his observations in a work entitled Principes d'électricité, confirming Franklin's electrical theory: addressed in a letter to Brugnatelli[12]. Van Mons also sought electrical explanations for meteorological phenomena, particularly fog. He published several popular articles on this subject in the Journal de Bruxelles. In 1808, he published Censura commentarii a Wieglebo nuper editi de vaporis in aerem conversione[13]. In April 1827, he presented a memoir entitled Sur quelques particularités concernant les brouillards de différentes nature[14] .

In the course of his research, Van Mons, a polyglot, acted as a link between the theories of various German, English, French and Italian scientists, supporting or refuting their theories while translating and supplementing their work.[15] On 7 October 1801, Van Mons launched a new journal for the first time: the Journal de Chimie et de Physique. Based on Van Mons's correspondence, this periodical reported on all the discoveries and observations made by scientists of the time[16]. Via the Journal de Chimie et de Physique, he contributed to the dissemination of the battery developed by Alessandro Volta (1745-1827). In 1819, together with Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent (1778-1846) and Pierre Auguste Joseph Drapiez (1778-1856), he founded the Annales générales de Sciences physiques devoted to the natural sciences, six volumes of which were published between 1819 and 1822.

In 1800, Van Mons published the Pharmacopée manuelle to combat empiricism and ignorance about the production and consumption of various drugs. He gave a scientific name to each drug and simplified the formulas for its preparation. The work was translated into several languages[17], promoting the benefits of Jenniferian vaccination and clarifying the classification of chemical elements. He published other pharmacopoeias and works on pharmacy. In 1817, he published the Pharmacopée universelle du médecin praticien published in 1805 by François-Xavier Swediaur (1748-1824), enriched with various elements and comments. In 1821 and 1822, he republished his pharmacopoeia under the title : Pharmacopée usuelle, théorique et pratique in two volumes[18].

In the field of horticulture, the most important of his discoveries was a process for transporting scions of fruit trees over great distances; this multiplied the varieties of flowers and fruit depending on the soil in which the seedlings were planted. He also developed a theory on the variability of species and the heredity of characteristics. He established that the first seeds of a young variety of fruit tree produce trees whose seeds are still variable, but which are less inclined to return to the wild than trees from much older varieties. In 1823, he highlighted the existence of 2,000 varieties in a fruit catalogue. In 1835 and 1836, he published his famous work Arbres fruitiers, ou Pomonomie belge[19] The quality of his pears was recognised as far afield as the United States; he was appointed correspondent to the horticultural societies of Boston, New York and Massachusetts. He also won several gold medals from the Société royale et centrale d'Agriculture de la Seine and the Horticultural Society of London.


Publications

  • Le retour au château, comédie en un acte, terminée par une fête. Composée à l'occasion du retour de LL. AA. RR. nos Sérénissimes gouverneurs généraux, à Bruxelles, le 28 janvier 1788, Luik, [s.n.], 1788. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • Principes d'électricité, en confirmation de la théorie électrique de Franklin; adressés dans une lettre, à Brugnatelli, Brussel : Emmanuel Flon, imprimeur-libraire, [1793-1794]. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • Philosophie chimique ou Vérités fondamentales de la chimie moderne, disposées dans un nouvel ordre; par A.F. Fourcroy. Nouvelle édition, augmentée de notes et d'axiomes tirés des dernières découvertes, Brussel : Emmanuel Flon, imprimeur-libraire, [1794-1795]. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • Pharmacopée manuelle, Brussel : Emmanuel Flon, imprimeur-libraire, et se trouve à Paris : chez Richard Caille, Ravier, 1800.: Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • Nationalis scientiarum artiumque in Galliâ Instituti Socii, physices experimentalis, nec non chymiae professoris publici, Societatis medico-chirurgico-pharmaceuticae quae Bruxellis est, à secretis, etc., etc. Censura commentarii a Wieglebo nuper editi, cui titulus: De vaporis aquei in aërem conversione, Brussel: è typographiâ Emmanuelis Flon, [1800-1801]. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • BRUGNATELLI, Luigi V., Synonymie des nomenclatures chimiques modernes, traduit de l’italien par VAN MONS, Jean-Baptiste, Brussel : [s.n.], an IX, 1801. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • Journal de chimie et de physique, ou recueil périodique des découvertes dans les sciences chimiques et physiques, tant en France que chez l'étranger, 7 vol. en 4 vol. 6 vol. en 3 vol, Brussel : Emmanuel Flon, imprimeur-libraire, 1800-1802. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • Principe d’électricité ou confirmation de la théorie électrique de Franklin, Brussel, 1802.
  • Théorie de la combustion, Brussel, 1802.
  • sur les trois nouveaux corps chimiques, les métallofluores, l’iodine et l’huile détonnante de Dulong, Brussel, 1809.
  • Extrait d'une lettre de VAN MONS, Jean-Baptiste, à Bucholz, sur la formation des métaux en général et en particulier de aux de H. Davy, s.l., s.n., [1810]. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • DAVY, H., Elémens de philosophie chimique, vertaald door VAN MONS, Jean-Baptiste de l'anglais avec des additions intercalées au texte, Parijs ; Amsterdam : Du Four, 1813. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • SWEDIAUR, Pharmacopaeia medici pratici universalis, etc., avec notes et additions de VAN MONS, Jean-Baptiste, 3 vol., Brussel : De Mat, 1817.
  • Principes élémentaires de chimie philosophique avec des applications générales de la doctrine des propositions déterminées, Brussel, chez De Mat, 1818.
  • "On the cultivation of Lobelia Fulgens, in Belgium", lu le 7 mars 1815, in Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, Volume 2, Londen : Nicel successor to Bulmer & Co., Cleveland Row, St. James, 1822. p. 153-155.
  • Pharmacopée usuelle, théorique et pratique, Leuven : Vanlinthout en Vanden Zande, 2 vol., 1821-1822. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • Catalogue abrégé des fruitiers qui ont formé sa collection de 1798-1823, Louvain, [s.n.], [s.d.]. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • Catalogue descriptif abrégé contenant une partie des arbres fruitiers qui ont formé la collection de JB Van Mons, Leuven, 1823.
  • Catalogue descriptif abrégé contenant une partie des arbres fruitiers qui, depuis 1798, jusqu'en 1823, ont formé la collection de J.B. van Mons avec l'indication des variétés auxquelles se rapportent les greffes de ces arbres qui ont été distribuées sous des numéros à différentes sociétés d'agriculture, d'horticulture et de pomologie, ainsi qu'a un grand nombre de particuliers, Leuven : Imprimerie de C.J. de Mat, marché aux Grains, N° 13, [1823]. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • Conspectus mixtionum Chemicarum, 1 vol., Leuven, Vanlinthout : 1827.
  • Materiei medico-pharmaceuticae nec non pharmaciae practicae compendium, cum appendice : Pars prima, Leuven :F. Michel, 1829. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • ALM LE PELLETIER, Traité complet sur la maladie scrophulouse augmenté de notes par Van Mons, Brussel : [s.n.], 1833. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • Abrégé de chimie à l’usage des leçons, 2 vol., Leuven : F. Michel, 1831-1835.
  • Arbres fruitiers, ou Pomonomie belge, vol. 1 et vol. 2, Leuven: imprimerie Dusart et Vandenbroeck, 1835.
  • La chimie des Ethers, vol.1, Leuven : imprimerie Dusart en Vandenbroeck, 1837. Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
  • Faits et vues détachés, en rapport avec le différend sur certains points de théorie chimique dont la discussion vient d’être entamée dans l’Académie des sciences de France, v. 1 ; f. 1-31 en v. 2, f. 1-17., Leuven, 1840.


Publications at the Academy


Bibliography


Notes

  1. ↑ GUISLAIN, Albert, "Un grand pharmacien bruxellois, J.B. Van Mons (1765-1842"), in: la Revue de Médecine et de pharmacie, nr. 1, 1959, 1-11.
  2. ↑ Archives of the City of Brussels, Fonds Adolphe Max.
  3. ↑ GHISLAIN, Albert, Op. Cit., 4 en BRUYLANTS, Albert, "Esquisse de l’histoire de la chimie en Belgique pendant le 19e siècle et le début du 20e", in: Florilège des sciences en Belgique pendant le 19e et le début du 20e, Brussel: Académie royale de Belgique Classe des sciences, 1968, 250.
  4. ↑ DEBIÈVE, Marius, "Un pharmacien révolutionnaire : Jean-Baptiste Van Mons", in: Figures de professeurs de pharmacie à l’université de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve: Cabay, 1985, 14.
  5. ↑ DEBIÈVE, Marius, Op. Cit., p.27.
  6. ↑ La Belgique judiciaire – 2 janvier 1845
  7. ↑ Some letters from the correspondence between Roberjot and Van Mons have been published and digitised. QUETELET, Alphonse, "Notice historique sur J.-B. Van Mons ; sa correspondance avec Roberjot", in Trésor National : recueil historique, littéraire, scientifique, artistique, commercial et industriel, 2e série, t. 1, Bruxelles : Wouters, Raspoet et cie, imprimeurs libraires, 1843, p. 40-48.
  8. ↑ WELLENS-DE DONDER, Liliane, "François-Antoine Curtet et l'enseignement de la médecine à Bruxelles au début du XIXe siecle", in Cahiers Bruxellois, t. 8, 1963, p. 94-137
  9. ↑ ARNAULT, A. V., JAY, A., JOUY, E., NORVINS, J., Biographie nouvelle des contemporains, t. 20, Paris: Librairie historique, Hôtel d’Aligre, 1825, p.154
  10. ↑ One of his memoirs appeared in the tome III des Actes de la Société de Médecine de Bruxelles: Les effets de l’orage sur l’homme et les animaux et les moyens de s’en garantir et d’y remédier
  11. ↑ Annuaire de l’Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux arts de Belgique, t. 59, 1893, p.58.
  12. ↑ Available at the Royal Library: VAN MONS, Jean-Baptiste, Principes d'électricité, en confirmation de la théorie électrique de Franklin; adressés dans une lettre, à Brugnatelli, Bruxelles : imprimerie d'Emmanuel Flon, 1793-1794
  13. ↑ Publié à Bruxelles: Emmanuel Flon, 1808.
  14. ↑ VAN MONS, Jean-Baptiste,"Quelques particularités concernant les brouillards de différente nature", in Nouveaux mémoires de l’Académie royale, des sciences et belles-lettres de Bruxelles, t. 4, 1827, p.369-290.
  15. ↑ Disponible à la bibliothèque royale :BRUGNATELLI, Luigi V., Synonymie des nomenclatures chimiques modernes, traduit de l’italien par VAN MONS, Jean-Baptiste, Bruxelles : [s.n.], an IX (1801).
  16. ↑ JACQUES, Victor, "Mons, Jean-Baptiste van", in Biographie nationale, t.15, Bruxelles : Bruylant, 1899, col. 120-132, col. 123
  17. ↑ Available at the royal library:Van Mons, Jean-Baptiste, Pharmacopée manuelle, par J.B. Van Mons, Docteur en médecine et Apothicaire; de l'Institut national de France; Professeur de physique expérimentale et de chimie à l'école centrale de la Dyle, Bruxelles : de l'Imprimerie d'Emmanuel Flon et se trouve à Paris : chez Richard Caille, Ravier, 1800.
  18. ↑ Van Mons J. B., Pharmacopée usuelle, théorique et pratique, Louvain: Van Linthout & Van den Sande, 1821.
  19. ↑ VAN MONS, Jean-Baptiste, Arbres fruitiers, ou Pomonomie belge, t. 1 and t. 2, Louvain: imprimerie Dusart et Vandenbroeck, 1835.
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